Diving medicine

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Diving medicine, also called undersea medicine, is the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of conditions caused by humans entering the undersea environment. It includes the effects on the body of pressure on gases, the diagnosis and treatment of conditions caused by marine hazards and how relationships of a diver's fitness to dive affect a diver's safety.


Effects of depth and pressure

Most diving accidents or illnesses are related to the effect of depth/pressure on gases in the body; examples are decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, arterial gas embolism and CO2 retention. Dysbaric osteonecrosis is an example of the effects on the bones and joints of bubbles from decreased pressure in a nitrogen saturated diver.

Marine hazards


Fitness to dive




Disorders that inhibit the "natural evolution of Boyle's Law": conditions or diseases that are associated with air trapping in closed spaces, such as sinuses, middle ear, lungs and gastrointestinal tract. Severe asthma is an example.


Hyperbaric medicine

Recompression treatment in a hyperbaric chamber was initially used as a life-saving tool to treat the "bends" in caisson workers and divers who stayed too long at depth and developed decompression sickness. Now, it is a highly specialized treatment modality that has been found to be effective in the treatment of many conditions where the administration of oxygen under pressure has been found to be beneficial. Studies have shown it to be quite effective in some 13 indications approved by the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. Some success has been also seen in numerous other conditions that are being treated in an "off-label" manner - but without backup from good evidence based studies.

See also

External links

de:Tauchmedizin it:Medicina subacquea